Magic circle firm Allen & Overy will cut up to 282 lawyers worldwide as part of the largest recession-triggered redundancy consultation to date. The firm’s announcement last week means that around 630 lawyers are in line to be axed by the top 10 UK law firms – around 3% of their combined global headcount.

The 282 lawyers facing redundancy at Allen & Overy include 82 partners. The firm is also freezing pay for all staff, demerging its private client practice and freezing billing rates as part of a restructuring expected to cost £44m.

Up to 200 support staff worldwide are also at risk. The firm said that around half of all redundancies would be made in London, but trainees and those with future training contracts would be spared the axe.

In a statement, global managing partner Wim Dejonghe said: ‘In the rapidly changing environment in which we operate, there is simply not enough work to keep all our people sufficiently busy and we do not see that changing. We have reluctantly taken the difficult decision to act now, from a position of financial strength, so that we can offer better terms to our departing people than might otherwise be the case.’

Of the top 10 firms, only four – magic circle firms Freshfields and Slaughter and May, and City firms Herbert Smith and Ashurst – have not publicly announced redundancy consultations in recent weeks.